Cræft and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more

Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

An archaeologist takes us into the ancient world of traditional crafts to uncover their deep, original histories.

In the midst of a seemingly endless supply of mass-manufactured products, we find ourselves nostalgic for products bearing the mark of authenticity―hand-made furniture, artisan breads, craft beers, and other goods produced by human hands. What often goes unnoticed is the transformation of our understanding of craft―or rather, craeft―in the wake of industrialization.

In Craeft, archaeologist and medieval historian Alexander Langlands argues that our modern understanding of craft only skims the surface. His journeys from his home in Wales have taken him along the Atlantic seaboard of Europe, from Spain through France and England to Scotland and Iceland in search of the lost meaning of craft. Reaching as far back as the Neolithic period, he combines deep history with scientific analyses and personal anecdotes. We follow the author as he herds sheep, keeps bees, tans hides, spins wool, and thatches roofs. We learn that scythes work much better on tall grass than the latest model of weed trimmers, that you can spin wool using a large wooden spoon, and that it was once considered criminal to work on animal hides before a requisite twelve-month soak.

When it first appeared in Old English, the word craeft signified an indefinable sense of knowledge, wisdom, and resourcefulness. Rediscovering craft will connect us with our human past, our sense of place, and our remarkable capacity to survive in the harshest of landscapes. Craeft helps us more fully appreciate human ingenuity and the passing on of traditions from generation to generation.

"Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress"
Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? Cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, and instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise. Learn more

Special offers and product promotions

Editorial Reviews

Review

“In Craeft, Mr. Langlands excavates the scintillating history of our truest super power: making clever things with our hands. This history is rife with real-life magic and affection, for our earth as well as one another. I am damn grateful for this book.” - Nick Offerman, author of Paddle Your Own Canoe and Good Clean Fun

“Hypnotic... In reconnecting with craeft, [Langlands] begins to see not just the beauty of an object or a building or a landscape, but the deeper purpose for which each has been created. And he understands, too, the environment they shape and upon which they depend.... At a time where our disconnection from the world around us is not just tragic but downright dangerous, recovering our status as Homo faber, the species that makes things, may be our salvation.” - Michael Bierut, New York Times

“Alex Langlands is probably the only person who could have written this wonderful book, drawing as it does upon his extraordinary combination of experiences as an archaeologist and as somebody who has actively learned such a huge range of the traditional crafts which he explains. This is literally heritage in action, and artistry which produces practical rewards.” - Ronald Hutton, professor of British history, Bristol University, and author of The Triumph of the Moon

“Alexander Langlands is spot-on: crafting isn’t just about creating beautiful, useful objects. It’s about reclaiming the knowledge, wisdom, and power that link us to the collective history of civilization. Craeft is what makes us human.” - Carleen Madigan, editor of The Backyard Homestead

“Erudite, deftly argued, well written, and timely―Langlands weaves together the basic human desire to use our hands to make things with tradition, landscape, and the natural world. A delightful book that should be widely read.” - Robert Penn, author of The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees

“An engaging read imparting a wealth of historical knowledge with a touch of infotainment. With current interest in authentic arts and handmade goods, this unparalleled scholarly work will appeal to both specialists and casual readers. ” - Library Journal, starred

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

A very engaging book by a maven of English and Northern European field archaeology. His theme concerns the many crafts and techniques that have underlain the progress of our modern civilization. fabric weaving, husbandry of farms and fields, selection and treatment of raw materials (flax, wool, leather, wood) and their processing into crucially useful products - fabric, harness, fencing, to specify a few. His writing shows great respect for nature, history, and the hard work of our ancestors, and serves as a useful introduction to managing life's needs in the pre-industrial era. My only cavil with this work is the absence of illustrations, and the difficulty of following his words of description and explanation.

On the whole, this book is much better on WHY things were done than it is on HOW. To complete the picture, I would refer the reader to several of the many Eric Sloane books illustrating early American farm life and work. They are, perhaps, less engaging, but they certainly present the theme in a better-illustrated and hence a more digestible manner, and they are currently available here on Amazon!

The author uses many words about crafts and craft-making that are unfamiliar to me. Some he explains; many he doesn't. Of those he didn't explain, most I didn't need to know their meaning. That's because he writes about an idea—making in general, and craft-making specifically, are important, perhaps critical, for modern people to know about, and to appreciate.The knowledge, skill, and wisdom developed over hundreds or thousands of years about creating a drywall, a thatched roof, a beehive, using and creating leather for many needs, baskets, ploughing and growing food, and all using local and natural materials, has been lost in many cultures, or of which few craftsmen exist.Mr. Langlands' book asks us to recognize the knowledge, skills, and wisdom that went into creating and sustaining human life. How we adapted to our surroundings and thrived.Read "Cræft" to understand our past better, and to learn that we are capable of so much more than what some say about how we can and should live. We've given up a great deal of ourselves and consciously or unconsciously made choices. We can decide to be and to live differently, or to at least recognize that there is another way to be in the world, and living even a little bit that way may be a gift we give ourselves.

"Cræft" is a mix of the author's experiences and thoughts about various traditional skills that were once vital to our survival. The author is an experimental archaeologist who was involved in BBC shows like Victorian Farm, Edwardian Farm, and Warime Farm. He told stories about his experiences while trying a craft or using the products of traditional crafts. He also contemplated the costs of modern ways of doing things and some advantages of using traditional methods. For some crafts, he described the labor that went into gathering the raw materials and how the craft is done. He provided enough detail that I could understand the basic principles of how it's done, but it's not a how-to guide. It's more an attempt to get readers to fully appreciate traditional crafts.

The author periodically delved into the origins of various words, and he started off with cræft and how it's meaning has changed over time. Then he talked about the tools and considerations that go into haymaking, evolutionary flint tool development, various ways we still use sticks (like in shepherd's crooks), making wicker hives and beekeeping using these hives, building drystone walls and maintaining hedgerows, taking flax and wool from harvesting/shearing to making yarn and weaving, and making wattle hurdles.

He examined the various local materials that were used in thatching and how they were used to thatch a roof. He talked about how leather was tanned and the many ways leather has been used (like shoes and harness). He talked about his visit to a traditional farming spot in Iceland and about how British farms used to be very diversified. He talked about dew ponds and how livestock ponds were traditionally constructed, the many ways that pottery and baskets were used in the past, how baskets are made, and his adventures in lime burning. He also talked about digging, both as an archaeologist and in clearing land for a garden.

The one thing I found lacking was pictures. Except for one set of sketches showing some tools, there were no pictures of the places or objects he talked about nor pictures of people doing the craft. I think I would have been able to follow his explanations better if there had been some pictures. Overall, though, it was an interesting book about the author's involvement with traditional crafts.

Having worked at Colonial Williamsburg in my younger days, I've always had a weakness for lost crafts and skills. This book kept me enthralled through many different skills. He writes wonderfully and hopefully someone out there will take up his knowledge and learn to Pleach their own hedges and make the world a more beautiful place.

A charming read that combines the author’s personal experience (for instance cutting a field of grass with a scythe) and exhaustive anthropological knowledge (how wooden hay rakes were, at one time, grown). An excellent read that would have benefitted from illustrations (!) and an index.

A book I wanted to like, but just couldn’t. As much about ‘craft’ as the television career of the author - I don’t know how to weave anything having read the book, but I know lots about the television shows the author participated in. Terms like ‘hurdle’ and ‘twilly hole’ are thrown around with limited or no definition, I trust the author understands these terms, but I do not. The book accomplishes the curious feat of transporting the reader into the dark ages, where confusion meets meets mumbo-jumbo in an attractive book binding.